The vestiges of Rubialism and a legal mess overshadow the renewal of the Football Federation

President Pedro Rocha began to see his star fall when he entered the Majadahonda courts as a witness on April 12 to testify in Operation Brody, which is investigating corruption in the Football Federation (RFEF).

Just eight months earlier, he had been anointed as Luis Rubiales’ successor as leader of the RFEF and applauded as a natural successor by the other 18 territorial presidents of Spanish football: “I was the only vice-president and I already told them that if they did not agree with the decision that I should be president of the management, they should tell me, because this is a complication and I have my own business to attend to,” Rocha himself told the prosecutor in his judicial statement, to which elDiario.es has had access and to which he entered as a witness and came out as a defendant. There were no surprises: “The 18 of them go and tell me, it has to be you, Pedro,” he said.

Rocha assumed Rubiales’ salary of 675,000 euros a year – or, in other words, 56,000 euros a month – and took charge of a temporary management body of the Federation that was to immediately call elections for president for the remaining term of office of Rubiales, one year, something that he did not do.

Instead, he led the RFEF for eight months and made decisions for which he was not competent, according to the Administrative Court of Sport (TAD), which is why he has been sanctioned, disqualified for two years and left office this week, after the court did not take into account the precautionary measure he presented to try to stay.

He went from rubbing shoulders with the King in the stands at the European Championships in June to not travelling to the Olympics. He did not even preside over the Assembly in July and stopped signing orders and documents since before the summer.

One year after the Rubiales scandal, the RFEF is once again in the hands of a management committee, the territorial presidents – part of the Rubiales system – continue to govern, elections are pending for a new Assembly and a new president for four years, but the Federation is currently governed by the same people who were promoted by Rubiales.

Despite the sporting achievements, the Spanish football leadership is navigating between legal proceedings, scandals and a clamour for an end to the interim situation and for a real regeneration that, until now, has been stagnant and depends largely on how the next elections are managed by the current team.

A new board of directors will be formed this Monday, the temporary power that is in charge of running the RFEF when there is no president. The Board of Directors decided on Friday that, instead of directly calling elections for the total renewal of the Federation (Assembly and presidency), it will first call elections for the presidency with the current Assembly, which lengthens the electoral process and the deadlines to achieve a renewal beyond the Rubialism.

In fact, Rocha’s departure due to legal imperative does not mean that he cannot return. Federal sources add that Rocha can appeal and ask for a precautionary measure when elections are officially called, as he seems to intend to do.

Moreover, the fact that the Federation has taken the long electoral path – with a stop for a new president to replace the management – ​​benefits it because if justice has some time and rules in its favour, it could be in time to present itself, assuming that by then it does not already have an internal competitor.

Whoever wins the next election will be the one to lead the final electoral process, that is, the one who will have in his or her hands the electoral calls for the Assembly and the presidency for four years, the deadlines, the censuses and the commands.

The process that comes

The Assembly is an essential body in the Federation. The current one comes from the Rubiales era, it is the one that applauded when he refused to resign, it is made up of 140 people (only six of them are women) and the current electoral system meant that it was not very critical because the assembly members arrived already filtered by the presidents of the territorial ones: as in the general elections, there are constituencies that are managed by these presidents, who received bonuses of 100,000 euros per year each from Rubiales as a “professionalization allowance”, an initiative to end up paying them those amounts and ensure their support.

This body is key because it is the one that elects the president, approves the accounts and validates the presidential work, in addition to being the one that has the power to remove its leader: precisely for that reason Rubiales left when he wanted, without anyone from outside being able to force him because the Assembly did not withdraw its support.

It is this Assembly that will elect Pedro Rocha’s replacement, so sources familiar with the Federation say that it is most likely that another official candidate from the Rubiales or Rocha era will emerge from there and the continuity will continue until the next elections, the definitive ones.

Precisely with the aim of avoiding another Rubiales case from happening again, the High Council of Sports (CSD) – the government body responsible for sports federations – published a new order at the beginning of the year with new rules of the game: the future Assembly, which must be elected before the end of the year, must have a quota of equality so that there are more women, it contemplates the women’s football team and it greatly reduces the power of the regional governments when it comes to filtering candidates.

The government also published an order that gave the possibility of skipping the intermediate step of appointing a president in a case of interim status such as the one currently being experienced by the Football Federation, which has clung to its statutes instead of this government regulation, despite the fact that it is more lax and would avoid an extra electoral process.

The “logical” thing to do, they say in the Federation, is not to repeat the precedent of Rocha and not risk having the management make decisions, which is what has ended with Rocha being disqualified. That is why they are calling for preliminary elections for a legitimate president, they argue.

New president or president

This new president will call elections for a new Assembly which, once elected under the new rules, will in turn elect a new president of the RFEF for the next four years, finally closing the process.

From there, Spanish football can regain some stability. The question of whether the scorn of a Federation that has had three presidents charged and with pending legal matters (Villar, Rubiales and now Rocha) is repeated or whether there is a renewal depends largely on who is in charge and controls the timing.

In fact, it has been impossible to impose regeneration from outside until now, despite the fact that there are internal voices (women’s football, players’ associations…) that ask and have publicly asked for an end to verticality, inbreeding and obscurantism.

Rubiales chose his successor, Rocha, and Rocha chose his own: in June he appointed his trusted person, María Ángeles García, as deputy vice-president, with the aim of her taking over if he was suspended. Nobody could force Rubiales to leave office. Neither could Rocha. Only a judicial decision could have ousted him, just as only FIFA could have ousted the former.

What’s more, Rocha ran for president after being recently indicted in the corruption case being investigated in Majadahonda. Not only was no one able to stop him, but the current Assembly gave him the necessary endorsements to proclaim himself the sole winner. He went from being president of the management committee to president, regardless of the fact that he was under investigation by the courts.

There was no criticism at the RFEF headquarters, nor was there a scandal in Las Rozas. This was despite the fact that the Government even threatened to involve FIFA, which did not move and let it continue despite the accusation and the complaints it already had in the TAD. On the positive side, Rocha had among his supporters the leaders of the Federation, the territorial presidents and the support of Javier Tebas, president of La Liga.

Nothing happened within the RFEF ecosystem either when the Civil Guard showed up at its offices to empty hard drives because they were not collaborating with justice. From that moment on, the only measures taken were to send home several directors who continued working since the Rubiales scandal despite being involved in corruption cases and investigated in the Jenni Hermoso kiss case.

Once the mandate of Rubiales and Rocha is over, it remains to be seen whether the hydra is still alive or whether the person and the structure that replace them in the long and complex electoral process will also put an end to Rubialesism and its way of doing things in the most powerful sports federation in Spain.